Transport vehicles such as trucks, trailers and railroad cars have long utilized bulkhead doors for dividing the internal storage compartment into a plurality of subcompartments. Such doors have been particularly desirable for use in refrigerated transport vehicles, commonly called reefers, to permit the formation of several different subcompartments which can be of different temperatures to permit the simultaneous transporting of different goods within a single vehicle. While these known bulkhead doors have been widely utilized, nevertheless they have possessed features which have been less than desirable and have accordingly restricted the maximum and most efficient utilization of such doors.
For example, these known doors are structurally complex so that installation of the door within the vehicle is difficult and time consuming. Further, the mechanisms utilized for mounting the door within the vehicle are sufficiently complex as to make movement of the door, so as to adjust the position thereof, a rather complex operation. In fact, movement of the door so as to adjust the position thereof often requires the efforts of two men in order to safely handle and manipulate the door. These known doors normally utilize separate hinge and latching mechanisms disposed adjacent each upper corner of the door, with further latching mechanisms being disposed adjacent the lower corners of the door, which latching mechanisms are all independent of one another and must be manually manipulated, whereby adjusting the position of the door is unduly complex.
The known door structures have also encountered problems with respect to mounting the door within the vehicle, particularly a refrigerated trailer, since the transverse spacing between the side walls of a refrigerated trailer often undergoes substantial dimensional variation. The mounting mechanisms associated with the known doors have been unable to effectively compensate for this dimensional variation.
These known door structures also normally utilize several different devices for performing the individual functions of the door. For example, one set of latching devices are generally located near the lower edge of the door for locking the door in its lowered or vertical position, whereas a further set of latching devices are located adjacent the lower corners of the door for locking the door in its raised or horizontal position. The use of plural devices for performing these individual functions thus makes manipulation of the door more complex, and also increases both the cost and weight of the door.
A further disadvantage of the known doors is the difficulty experienced in attempting to replace the seals which are mounted on the edge of the door, which seals coact with the adjacent walls of the vehicle. These seals are generally fixedly attached in a manner whereby replacement of the seals is substantially impossible, or can be accomplished only by completely removing the door from the vehicle and performing substantial manual labor thereon.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved bulkhead door assembly which overcomes the above-mentioned disadvantages. More specifically, it is an object of the present invention to provide:
1. A bulkhead door assembly, as aforesaid, which provides a pair of combined latch and pivot mechanisms disposed adjacent the upper edge of the door for allowing the door to both pivot and lock about the same axis, with the same mechanisms preventing longitudinal movement of the door when same is in both a raised (stored) and lowered (operational) position.
2. A bulkhead door assembly, as aforesaid, wherein the upper latch mechanisms can be simultaneously manually actuated to permit movement of the door.
3. A bulkhead door assembly, as aforesaid, wherein the upper edge of the door is supported on a pair of carriage assemblies which are movable on track structures secured to the side walls of the vehicle, which carriage assemblies automatically compensate for any dimensional variation in the transverse spacing between the side walls of the vehicle.
4. A bulkhead door assembly, as aforesaid, which is provided with a pair of lock mechanisms disposed adjacent the lower corners of the door, which lock mechanisms are operational for holding the door both in its lowered position and in its raised position.
5. A bulkhead door assembly, as aforesaid, wherein the upper latch mechanisms can be released while the door is in its raised position to permit repositioning of the door.
6. A bulkhead door assembly, as aforesaid, provided with seals on all of the side edges thereof, which seals can be easily replaced without requiring a major rebuilding or repairing of the door.
7. A bulkhead door assembly, as aforesaid, wherein dual seals are provided along each edge of the door to result in an intermediate air space therebetween.
8. A bulkhead door assembly, as aforesaid, which is of light weight to facilitate its handling and manipulation while not significantly affecting the load-carrying capacity of the vehicle, which is durable and can withstand limited loads imposed thereon such as might occur when loads within the compartment undergo shifting, and which is economical to manufacture, install and manipulate.
Other objects and purposes of the invention will be apparent to persons familiar with doors of this type upon reading the following specification and inspecting the accompanying drawings.